Trivia About Me (You'll Be Tested Later)

On vaction in Palm Beach. I still look exactly like this.

• Like most owls, I'm nocturnal. I'm awake and creative in the middle of the night, but mornings aren't my best time. My brain doesn't shift into drive until about 10 am. (Shh...don't tell my former employers.)
  
  
• I'm a wordaholic. When I don't have anything else to read, I've been known to read the fire regulations on the back of a hotel room door.
  
  
• Three things that will always make me smile: eating dark chocolate, browsing in a bookstore and buying a new owl.
  
  

• I love tulips, Spring, art deco, Stevie Wonder, Humphrey Bogart, MGBs, Modigliani, The Netherlands, theatre and travel.
   

• I hate ketchup. Even if you spell it catsup, I still won't eat it.
  
  

• My earliest ambition, at age 3, was to be Queen of England. Queen Elizabeth wore a tiara, everyone applauded her, and--most importantly--she was on tv.
  
  
• When I was five, I wrote, directed and starred in plays in which I forced my friends to participate. I wrote and illustrated my first book at age seven. Later that year, another girl and I were asked to spontaneously entertain a Grade One class. Using my hand puppets, we improvised a play and were a huge success.
   
  
• After I found out that the Queen wasn't leaving her job any time soon, I decided to become an actress. I took drama lessons. When I was nine, I played an Indian in Peter Pan at school. (Yes, I was probably the only Indian ever to have strawberry-blonde braids and freckles.) I crammed in every drama course I could find at university. Then I discovered that acting wasn't a secure profession. You had to keep auditioning, looking for the next job.
  
  
• So I decided to become a drama critic instead. Writing is so much more secure than acting. My career counsellor at university advised me to "just get something in print." (I don't think she knew that it wasn't quite that easy. Neither did I.) I wrote drama reviews for the university newspaper and used them in my portfolio to get my first writing job.
  
  
• I've been on a quest for fame all my life. I'm still seeking approval, one publication at a time.
  

Q: Do you have any pets?

A: A very spoiled Sheltie, Echo, who thinks he's royalty. I wonder where he got that idea.

Q: What do you write?
A: Novels for kids about 8-12. Also I've dabbled in poetry, journalism and short stories.

Q: Published anything?
A: Some poetry, some newspaper articles, and a cover story for enRoute, Air Canada's in-flight magazine. Lots of ads. One of my poems won a prize.

Q: What jobs have you had?
A:  I wrote catalogues for a book publisher who went bankrupt just before I could send him my novel. I wrote catalogues and newspaper ads for a retail store. I edited a small newspaper before the days of desktop publishing, literally cutting and pasting galleys of text and photos. Conveniently, this newspaper accepted every article I submitted.

Q: Why do you spell some words with an extra "u"?
A: I'm Canadian. We like extra vowels.

Q: When are you going to trim your hair?
A:  Soon, Mom.

Q: When is your book going to be published?
A:  Soon, Mom.

His Royal Highness Echo